Groucho Marx

You Bet Your Life

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The great comic was all but washed up in movies when he became the host of this comedy quiz show on radio, then moved with it to TV in 1950. For another 11 years he flicked his cigar ashes at an assortment of oddball contestants (among them some soon-to-be-stars, like Phyllis Diller). The game was virtually an afterthought (a few perfunctory questions for each pair of players, with stolid sidekick George Fenneman keeping score); the point was to showcase the host's ad-lib banter. Never mind that much of the dialogue was scripted; the secret word for this show was always Groucho.